Ahead of the new Premiership Rugby season Harlequins Director of Rugby Conor O’Shea took the time to speak to Last Word on Sports
Hi Conor, how are preparations for the new season going?
Really well, I think if you ask any Premiership club at this stage of the year, they will say that. We haven’t played a match for a number of months and everyone’s happy but we’re excited for the new season. We believe we have a few wrongs to right this season. We are disappointed with what happened post Christmas last year because it’s not the standards we aspire to or want to achieve as a club. We want to get back into the top four. We want to be challenging for the title at the end of the year. We want to win the title and we want to do well in the Challenge Cup. It’s going to be a brutal year for everybody, we have too many ambitious people here to be saying we’re aiming for anything other than to win things and that’s what we intend doing.
After finishing 8th last year, what will you be doing to return to the play offs this season?
We were in the play offs for the previous three seasons, so the margins in the league are so tight and you need momentum. You need to make sure the tight matches go your way. We need to have a fit squad, that’s what we didn’t have, bottom line, last year. There are a number of other things we have addressed which will stay within the group but we intend to be the hardest working team in the Premiership. That’s what we have set about this pre season, working hard, no egos, being selfless and working for one another. That’s what got us the success we’ve had in previous years and got people to play at the international level, as well as their skill, and it’s what will make people achieve things here as well. So that’s what it is about returning this year, we didn’t have a scrum and we didn’t have a settled midfield because of all the injuries we had in the second half of the year. That’s a very difficult thing to do when you lose players to International rugby you don’t have the rest of the people to back fill. Now we’ve got a lot of experience in some young players, with adversity which will stand to them, and we’ve got some players who will really step up the level of this group. That’s how we’ll do it.
How has the World cup affected these preparations?
We want all our players to be playing at the World Cup, we don’t know when they are going to finish, hopefully as late as possible. This is the group we have here, we’re sorry that Marland Yarde is here, we would prefer him to be elsewhere at the moment. But as I said to him, four years ago Chris Robshaw and Mike Brown didn’t make the cut and look where they are now, so look after your home, that’s here. This group of players are very ambitious. We’ve got some good new imports, got some players fit again and we’re looking forward to the season.
You have made a number of new signings in the off season, how are the new lads settling in?
There are only a few of them here now, Winston Stanley, Adam Jones and Mat Luamanu and Owen Evans and a few young guys but they have settled in brilliantly and Adam is a model pro. The guys are very ambitious. We’ve also had people who have had surgery at the end of the year, and there are some outstanding rugby players, like Kyle Sinckler and Will Collier and others like that. I’m excited for them and the mix of bringing in people like Jamie Roberts, James Horwell and Tim Visser when they arrive post World Cup. Also we haven’t had Mike Brown since 24th January last season, so we can’t wait to have him back. Things flip very quickly and very easily and hopefully they will here.
You are off to Philadelphia to play the USA what will you be looking to get from the tour?
A bit of everything! We are a bit early in terms of our pre season because we don’t play a league game until October 16th but I’m looking forward to seeing in place what we have talked about, working harder on the pitch for each other, being selfless for one another, our phase shape and what we have been working on there, our defence and how we want to organise ourselves. The rest, the patterns and the set pieces will come as time goes on, but generally we want to see that work ethic, that desire to hit people, that desire to play, the desire to be selfless. If we do that, I’ll be happy.
Danny Care, Tim Visser and James Horwell were all involved with their countries at the weekend ahead of the Rugby World Cup, how did you think the guys fared?
I thought Tim was excellent, really good, against Ireland and James, well , the game was tough for the whole Australia team but he’s been outstanding for them in the Rugby Championship. Danny would have loved more opportunity at the start of the game when England were on top but that’s what the squad is about. International Rugby is about handling both the good times and the tough times and they are vastly experienced players and their goal is the World Cup. Australia won the Rugby Championship, they didn’t win the Bledisloe Cup but their goal is the World Cup. Some of the friendlies are just that. It’s tough to call them Internationals because with so many players it’s not a first choice team so you have to take it with a pinch of salt. It’s a bit like pre season, the real stuff for us gets underway October 16th, the real stuff for them is September 18th.
What do you think of the addition of Hawkeye for the TMO at the World Cup and is this something we could see in the Premiership?
Yes, anything that is trialled can be used, just as long as it doesn’t make the game five hours long it’s fine. Our livelihoods depend on decisions that are very marginal, so anything that makes the decision right, so as long as the process is good and quick, is a good thing.
Who is going to win the World Cup?
A top International rugby team! I think Ireland have an unbelievable chance, the draw they have favours them, the French game is obviously huge and Italy too, but they have a couple of nice games to warm into before Italy and France. If they can top their pool they have a great, great opportunity to do something incredibly special but blocking their path could be England and then you’ve got New Zealand and how can you discount Australia? It’s so hard. The favourites are obviously New Zealand, my heart will say Ireland and I want the England boys to do well, so it’s a real tough one but we’ll see.
Thank you Conor for your time and good luck for the new season
